New entrance at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. ; Credit: Tim Street-Porter/The Huntington

For years, I’d feared the worst. Behind that intrusive belt of chain link and green canvas fence, with all the hidden noise of power digging machines, smashing jackhammers and growling tractors going on behind it, and heaps of dirt piled high, I dreaded that something terrible was going on in the dark, hidden heart of our dear old Huntington.

We were promised a new visitor center, a new store, a new cafe and restaurant. I imagined the Disney-fied worst: Henry Huntington’s Roller Coaster Red Car Ride; Pinky’s Pinkberry Parlor. The Blue Boy Fashion Center. Maybe even a giant Rem Koolhaas-LACMA style amoeba of purple reinforced concrete sprawling all over the lawns between the library and the old gallery.

My fears were groundless. The $68 million (not much more than the Getty paid for its new Manet) 52,000 square foot Education and Visitor Center addition is in perfect harmony with the early 20th Century original library and art gallery, perhaps more so than some previous increments, such as the nearby and blankly imposing Munger Research Center. 

The addition is named after outgoing Huntington chief Steven S. Koblik, who engineered much of the funding and planning for the facility. He’s got something to be proud of in his retirement: a new garden-centered segment of new facilities that founder, pioneer transit tycoon Henry Huntington, would probably have enthused over.

(The Huntington Store at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Photo: Tim Porter-Street/The Huntington)

With its mighty $400 million endowment and the muscular fundraising power that enticed squillionaire Charlie Munger to donate hugely to this project (not to mention that research center), the venerable Huntington institution could have easily erected something expensively and grandiloquently modern.  

But its directorate and patrons seem to understand an important fact about the place: Most visitors don’t go there to be dazzled. We go there to be enthralled, even comforted by the century-old institution’s enduring and deeply reassuring ambiance that we are privileged to inhabit during our visits to its galleries of great art, its acreage of exquisite gardens and Arcadian vistas.

The Huntington possesses what designer Sheryl Barton, who co-created the new landscaping with the Huntington’s Jim Folsom, spoke of at the opening press conference as “the choreography of experience.”

That experience includes the new California-Mediterranean groves and gardens and the low-lying new structure that includes an expanded store, new classrooms, courts, cafes and an auditorium. With its simple, Tuscan-columned loggias and red-tiled roofs (and, oh, yes, even that showy glass dome on the Rose Hills Foundation Garden Court), it all effortlessly blends into the traditional whole.

Although the Huntington doesn’t seem to be planning on a new influx of visitors, it’s hard to see this new, more user-friendly front office isn’t going to attract more people to its San Marino location than the current 600,000 per year.

Particularly considering how regional museum attendance in general has boomed over recent decades. Will this abate the quiet private experience many of us Huntington fans have shared and treasured over the years?

(The Huntington will be installing this Alexander Calder sculpture, the  Jerusalem Stabile, this spring. Here, it's seen at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Calder Foundation; gift of the Philip & Muriel Berman Foundation to the Calder Foundation. Copyright © 2015 Calder Foundation /Artists Rights Society (ARS) Used with permission of The Huntington)

Probably. But there will also be important new things to see — like  Alexander Calder’s 12-by-20-foot Jerusalem Stabile, which beckons you into the new addition, and two powerful, newly acquired murals by the great 20th Century California artists Millard Sheets and Doyle Lane. Plus a new and glorious vista from the cafe’s terrace over to the original old Huntington villa — now gallery — where all this began, over a century ago.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

What is Huntington's disease, its symptoms and possible future medical breakthrough to cure this disease.

Remote job hunting has become increasingly popular, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote jobs provide flexibility and work-life balance that is hard to achieve with traditional jobs. However, finding remote jobs can be challenging. This article will provide updated tips for finding remote jobs. Focus On Your Goals What...

The post Remote Job Hunting 101: Strategies for Success appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Lone Shark Games’ name has come up more than a few times over the years here at ARGNet. Some of those projects, like 2008’s Citizens of Virtue, which created a fictional megachurch to create an interactive morality play, were explicitly designed as alternate reality games. More often than not, though, the company’s projects trend towards […]

The post Hunting of the Shark: Bookish Highlights From Lone Shark Games first appeared on ARGNet: Alternate Reality Gaming Network.

Fr. Maximos McIntyre, a ROCOR mission priest in MA, talks to us about the challenges of bi-vocational ministry and shares warnings about ghost hunting. And he knows what he is speaking about; he spent several years as a paranormal investigator working with some of the big names in the field.

The team join paranormal investigators to see if they can find a ghost

Hunters claim it is a "way of life", but their opponents say they are breaking the law.

The event is designed to show how the joy art can bring people.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said deer harvest numbers are up from last year, despite some poor weather on the second day.

Rioters in the same city where Anne Frank hid during the Holocaust hunted down Israeli soccer fans, beating them and forcing them to say “Free Palestine” in an outbreak of violence that many have likened to Kristallnacht during the Nazi regime in Germany. 

The aberrant fibrillization of huntingtin exon 1 (Httex1) characterized by an expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) tract is a defining feature of Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder. Recent investigations underscore the involvement of a small EDRK-rich factor 1a (SERF1a) in promoting Httex1 fibrillization through interactions with its N terminus. By establishing an integrated approach with size-exclusion-column-based small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SEC-SWAXS), NMR, and molecular simulations using Rosetta, the analysis here reveals a tight binding of two NT17 fragments of Httex1 (comprising the initial 17 amino acids at the N terminus) to the N-terminal region of SERF1a. In contrast, examination of the complex structure of SERF1a with a coiled NT17-polyQ peptide (33 amino acids in total) indicates sparse contacts of the NT17 and polyQ segments with the N-terminal side of SERF1a. Furthermore, the integrated SEC-SWAXS and molecular-simulation analysis suggests that the coiled NT17 segment can transform into a helical conformation when associated with a polyQ segment exhibiting high helical content. Intriguingly, NT17-polyQ peptides with enhanced secondary structures display diminished interactions with SERF1a. This insight into the conformation-dependent binding of NT17 provides clues to a catalytic association mechanism underlying SERF1a's facilitation of Httext1 fibrillization.

Key Housing is a best-in-class provider of corporate rentals throughout California from Southern to Northern California. The company is announcing its January 2024 featured listing for the Orange County region.

From August 25th to the 27th, celebrate the incoming football season with Huntington Fine Jewelers as we celebrate the boys in crimson and orange.

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Texas Hunting Ranch Open Now for Reservations

Former professor offers individual assistance on a personal basis.

In Leonard Hansen's latest book, "North American Mountain Hunting", he chronicles the physical and mental challenges of high elevations, constantly changing weather patterns and rugged terrains.

Meet the newest four-legged member of your family at Barktober Fest from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on October 28 at the OKC, Midwest, and Yukon locations of Huntington Fine Jewelers.

Save up to 50% on in-stock diamond jewelry at all Huntington Fine Jewelers Oklahoma jewelry stores all December.

Ring in spring this April 5-6 and 12-13 at any of Huntington's Oklahoma jewelry stores with great deals on beautiful engagement rings and dream wedding bands.

Enjoy a summer vacation on Huntington Fine Jewelers when you spend $3999 or more at any of their Oklahoma jewelry stores May 20-25, 2024.

Be dazzled this June by one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry when you visit any of Huntington Fine Jewelers' Oklahoma jewelry stores.

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Throughout September explore one-of-a-kind and limited edition Le Vian jewelry at Huntington Fine Jewelers' Oklahoma showrooms.

Join Huntington Fine Jewelers this October in their Oklahoma jewelry stores as they host several incredible events this month.

Huntington & Ellis, A Real Estate Agency, an affiliate of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, has announced it has ranked No. 2,781 on Inc. Magazine’s annual Inc. 5000 list, a prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. Achieving a 192% three-year growth rate, this marks the brokerage’s fourth-consecutive year being recognized and…

The post LeadingRE’s Huntington & Ellis Listed on Inc. 5000 for Fourth Consecutive Year appeared first on RISMedia.

Scientists have used an organoid model to gain new insights into Huntington's disease, a fatal genetic disorder that causes neurodenegeration ...

Scientists have used an organoid model to gain new insights into Huntington's disease, a fatal genetic disorder that causes neurodenegeration ...

Event Begins: Wednesday, November 13, 2024 10:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Veteran and Military Services

Job Hunting Tips for Veterans
Job-hunting in the civilian sector can be stressful for anyone, let alone for veterans. This webinar will talk about how veterans can use their existing knowledge and skills in the hunt to find a civilian career. Whether you are fresh out of the military or several years out, these tips are designed to help any veteran who is looking for a leg up in the job search.

Our guest speaker for this discussion is Mike Poyma, an Army veteran, employment specialist with the VA Veteran Readiness & Employment (VR&E) program, and founder of InvestVets, a Michigan-based organization connecting employers to vets. He will be sharing his experiences and tips when it comes to translating veteran skills to the civilian world. From networking to resume tips, he is thrilled to help connect the next generation of veterans with civilian jobs.

University of Toronto among extensive list of global collaboratorsTORONTO, ON – International high-energy physics research project IceCube has been named the 2013 Breakthrough of the Year by British magazine Physics World. The Antarctic observatory has been selected for making the first observation of cosmic neutrinos, but also for overcoming the many challenges of creating and […]

If you've been a recruiter before and probably even if you haven't, watching Bravo's new headhunting reality TV show The Headhuntress is a lot of fun. The new show documents the daily work of Wendy Doulton, a headhunter in LA, as she screens candidates, works with clients, coaches candidates, and gets frustrated with her staff. The Headhuntress stays true to the recruiting business. A recruiter watching the show will say over and over again, "...

Location: Main Media Collection - Video record 42345 DVD

An ancient campsite discovered in the Great Lakes can tell us how these ancient humans used to live.

marusin posted a photo:

via Instagram ift.tt/2lRQ8Lp

marusin posted a photo:

via Instagram ift.tt/2miNBe0

As a hunter, rancher, veterinarian, and lifelong member of the NRA, I believe that The Denver Post has badly misread Proposition 127 and does not understand the real dynamics with trophy hunting of our native wild cats.

Coloradans are being asked to ban mountain lion hunting and the hunting and trapping of bobcats and the endangered lynx should the animal ever get delisted.

1. Monster Hunter Outlanders Brings Big Beast Hunting to Mobile Gaming  CNET
2. Monster Hunter is going mobile with new ‘fully featured game’ Outlanders  Polygon
3. Monster Hunter is getting an open-world RPG spinoff for mobile  The Verge
4. TiMi Studio Group and Capcom announce Monster Hunter Outlanders for iOS, Android  Gematsu
5. How to join the Monster Hunter Outlanders playtest  ONE Esports

This time-lapse video shows researchers collecting samples inside a South African gold mine. (by Gaetan Borgonie)

With new Delaware hunting licenses going on sale this week, DNREC announced the 2024/25 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide is now available in hard copy from license agents throughout the state, at DNREC's recreational licensing office in the Richardson & Robbins Building at 89 Kings Highway in Dover and in a readily referenced online edition.

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control announced today that special hunting permits for Delaware State Parks can now be conveniently purchased wherever hunting licenses are sold in the state. The special permits are available online at Digital DNREC, at DNREC’s main campus in the Richardson and Robbins Building in Dover, and at more than 40 licensing agents statewide. The special permits, which cost $10 for residents and non-residents can now be purchased when buying a Delaware hunting license. These park permits will no longer be available for sale at Delaware State Parks offices.

Delaware's 2024/25 hunting season opens Sunday, Sept. 1 when Delaware deer hunters are set to go afield with archery equipment and crossbows. Also opening Sept. 1 are the resident Canada goose and mourning dove hunting seasons - the upcoming season will be the first for which Sunday hunting for gamebirds is permitted.

By staying silent, these bystanders betray themselves, their communities, and democratic ideals—abandoning Amsterdam’s Israeli and Jewish guests.

Coloradans have rejected a proposed ban on mountain lion and bobcat hunting -- a hit for wildlife advocates who have worked to outlaw or change the practice for years.

A modern butchery experiment using replicas of Stone Age tools raises new questions about how often prehistoric peoples hunted large animals such as bison or mammoths

Quality control is an important business function for any company. When your company is shipping devices with safety concerns, it's even more important. In some industries, a quality control failure is bound to be national headlines.

When the quality control software tool stopped working, everyone panicked. At which point, GRH stepped in.

Now, we've discussed this software and GRH before, but as a quick recap, it was:

written by someone who is no longer employed with the company, as part of a project managed by someone who is no longer at the company, requested by an executive who is also no longer at the company. There are no documented requirements, very few tests, and a lot of "don't touch this, it works".

And this was a quality control tool. So we're already in bad shape. It also had been unmaintained for years- a few of the QC engineers had tried to take it over, but weren't programmers, and it had essentially languished.

Specifically, it was a quality control tool used to oversee the process by about 50 QC engineers. It automates a series of checks by wrapping around third party software tools, in a complex network of "this device gets tested by generating output in program A, feeding it to program B, then combining the streams and sending them to the device, but this device gets tested using programs D, E, and F."

The automated process using the tool has a shockingly low error rate. Without the tool, doing things manually, the error rate climbs to 1-2%. So unless everyone wanted to see terrifying headlines in the Boston Globe about their devices failing, GRH needed to fix the problem.

GRH was given the code, in this case a a zip file on a shared drive. It did not, at the start, even build. After fighting with the project configuration to resolve that, GRH was free to start digging in deeper.

Public Sub connect2PCdb()
        Dim cPath As String = Path.Combine(strConverterPath, "c.pfx")
        Dim strCN As String

        ' JES 12/6/2016: Modify the following line if MySQL server is changed to a different server.  A dump file will be needed to re-create teh database in the new server.
        strCN = "metadata=res://*/Model1.csdl|res://*/Model1.ssdl|res://*/Model1.msl;provider=MySql.Data.MySqlClient;provider connection string='server=REDACTED;user id=REDACTED;database=REDACTED;sslmode=Required;certificatepassword=REDACTED;certificatefile=REDACTEDc.pfx;password=REDACTED'"
        strCN = Regex.Replace(strCN, "certificatefile=.*?pfx", "certificatefile=" & cPath)
        pcContext = New Entities(strCN)
        strCN = "metadata=res://*/Model1.csdl|res://*/Model1.ssdl|res://*/Model1.msl;provider=MySql.Data.MySqlClient;provider connection string='server=REDACTED;user id=REDACTED;persistsecurityinfo=True;database=REDACTED;password=REDACTED'"
        strCN = Regex.Match(strCN, ".*'(.*)'").Groups(1).Value

        Try
            strCN = pcContext.Database.Connection.ConnectionString
            cnPC.ConnectionString = "server=REDACTED;user id=REDACTED;password=REDACTED;database=REDACTED;"
            cnPC.Open()
        Catch ex As Exception

        End Try
    End Sub

This is the code which connects to the backend database. The code is in the category of more of a trainwreck than a WTF. It's got a wonderful mix of nonsense in here, though- a hard-coded connection string which includes plaintext passwords, regex munging to modify the string, then hard-coding a string again, only to use regexes to extract a subset of the string. A subset we don't use.

And then, for a bonus, the whole thing has a misleading comment- "modify the following line" if we move to a different server? We have to modify several lines, because we keep copy/pasting the string around.

Oh, and of course, it uses the pattern of "open a database connection at application startup, and just hold that connection forever," which is a great way to strain your database as your userbase grows.

The good news about the hard-coded password is that it got GRH access to the database. With that, it was easy to see what the problem was: the database was full. The system was overly aggressive with logging, the logs went to database tables, the server was an antique with a rather small hard drive, and the database wasn't configured to even use all of that space anyway.

Cleaning up old logs got the engineers working again. GRH kept working on the code, though, cleaning it up and modernizing it. Updating to latest version of the .NET Core framework modified the data access to be far simpler, and got rid of the need for hard-coded connection strings. Still, GRH left the method looking like this:

    Public Sub connect2PCdb()
        'Dim cPath As String = Path.Combine(strConverterPath, "c.pfx")
        'Dim strCN As String

        ' JES 12/6/2016: Modify the following line if MySQL server is changed to a different server.  A dump file will be needed to re-create teh database in the new server.
        'strCN = "metadata=res://*/Model1.csdl|res://*/Model1.ssdl|res://*/Model1.msl;provider=MySql.Data.MySqlClient;provider connection string='server=REDACTED;user id=REDACTED;database=REDACTED;sslmode=Required;certificatepassword=REDACTED;certificatefile=REDACTEDc.pfx;password=REDACTED'"
        'strCN = Regex.Replace(strCN, "certificatefile=.*?pfx", "certificatefile=" & cPath)
        'pcContext = New Entities(strCN)
        'strCN = "metadata=res://*/Model1.csdl|res://*/Model1.ssdl|res://*/Model1.msl;provider=MySql.Data.MySqlClient;provider connection string='server=REDACTED;user id=REDACTED;persistsecurityinfo=True;database=REDACTED;password=REDACTED'"
        'strCN = Regex.Match(strCN, ".*'(.*)'").Groups(1).Value

        'GRH 2021-01-15.  Connection information moved to App.Config
        'GRH 2021-08-13.  EF Core no longer supports App.Config method
        pcContext = New PcEntities

        Try
            ' GRH 2021-08-21  This variable no longer exists in .NET 5
            'strCN = pcContext.Database.Connection.ConnectionString
            ' GRH 2021-08-20  Keeping the connection open causes EF Core to not work
            'cnPC.ConnectionString = "server=REDACTED;user id=REDACTED;password=REDACTED;database=REDACTED;SslMode=none"
            'cnPC.Open()
        Catch ex As Exception

        End Try
    End Sub

It's now a one-line method, with most of the code commented out, instead of removed. Why on Earth is the method left like that?

GRH explains:

Yes, I could delete the function as it is functionally dead, but I keep it for the same reasons that a hunter mounts a deer's head above her mantle.